Heel.



M. H. FINN.

HEEL.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.15, 1905.

91 1,120. Patented Feb. 2, 1909.

THE NORRIS PETERS cm. WASHINGTON, o. c.

-E smrnspnrsnr curios.

MICHAEL HENRY FINN OF MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF JERSEY.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF NEW HEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 2, 1909.

citizen of the United States, residing at Mil-- ford, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain Improvement in IIeels,of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings i11- dicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to heels for boots or shoes. f

In the manufacture of boots or shoes it is at times desired that heelsattached to the boots or shoes be of greaterheight at the rear than atthe breast. For example, the use of such heels may be occasioned by the form or style of last employed, as in order to bring the tread-face of the heel in line with the tread of the forepart curvature of the heel seat of the last may render desirable a greater height at the rear of the heel than at the breast. Theme of such heelsmay also be occasioned by other considerations, as where it is desired to increase the height of a heel of a boot or shoe without altering the last originally designed for that boot or shoe.

To secure a difference in height between breast and rear, wedge lifts have heretofore been employed in building the heels to give the slope desired to the heel-seat face of the heels. The wedge lifts employed extend in some cases over the entire area of the heels and in some cases from the rear to a point back of the breast. These lifts are commonly produced by skiving off full sized lifts.

One of the objects of'my invention is to give a heel the form above referred to without the employment of a wedge lift and thus avoid the expense incident to the use of these lifts. I prefer to secure this end by modifying the operation of compressing or molding the heels. According to my invention the difference in height between rear and breast is obtained in the molding operation by reducing the degree of vertical compression towards the rearfof the heel over an area extending from side to side of the heel and from the rear to the extent desired towards the breast of the heel. In the heel shown there is a gradual decrease in density and increase in height from a point near the center of the lift extending over the rear portion only of the heel.

While, in its broader aspect, my invention is not limited to a heel in which the amount of vertical compression is reduced from a point intermediate the ends of the heel to the rear of the heel, such a treatment of the heel I believe to ossess advantages. For instance, it will e apparent that a heel so compressed-will have one of its faces deflected intermediate the ends of the heel, so that the contour of said face longitudinally of the heel is somewhat concave. In attaching a heel of this form to a boot or shoe when the heel is forced against the heel seat of the shoe, as by relative movement of a shoe support and a nail block, pressure upon the heel will be first applied at rear and breast. There is, therefore, an increased tendency to close the lifts of the heel tightly together at the vention; Fig. 2 is a view in perspective of the heel.

Asshown in the drawings, a heel embodying my invention is compressed so as "to gradually increase in height towards the rear. In the heel shown the tread has an outwardly deflected face 2 extending from a point 4, near the center of said face, to the rear of the heel. The seat face 6 is shown as molded, but its general plane is unbroken, aswill appear from Fig. 1. s

It will be understood that in attaching the heel shown to a boot or shoe the heel is forced against the. heel seat of the boot or shoe, and the pressure tov which it is subjected flattens the tread face and brings the face 2 back into substantially the plane'of the breast portion of the tread. After being attached to a boot or shoe the heel is in form substantiallythe same as" a heel provided with a wedge lift, its density having been gradually reduced towards. the rear in the heel compressing operation to secure a gradual increase in height and a consequent'compensation for the absence of a wedge lift.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of'the United States'is 1. As a new article of manufacture, a compressed heel formed of a plurality of suamaze perposed lifts having the degree of its verti cause the height of the heel to be increased in:

cal compression gradually reduced from a toward its rear portion.

oint intermediate its ends to the rear where- In testimony whereof I have signed my y the height of the heel is increased near name to this specification in the presence of 5 its rear portion and having the remaining two subscribing Witnesses.

portion of a uniform height. MJLCHAEL HENRY FINN.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a heel Witnesses: blank having the plane of its tread face de- WILLIAM COWPULBILLsON, fiected intermediate the breast and rear to JOHN H. TEMPLE. 

